Words and Actions : Towards 2011

Incheon Women Artists Biennale

International Symposium2010. 12. 21

Incheon Multiculture & Art Centre: International Conference Room

Incheon Women Artists Biennale Organizing CommitteeIncheon, korea

2010. 12. 21

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Symposium for the successful direction of 2011 Incheon Women Artists' Biennale

Words and Actions: Towards 2011 Incheon Women Artists Biennale

Date : 2010.12.21(Tue) 15:30 18:00

Venue : Incheon Multiculture & Art Centre: International Conference Room

Auspices : Incheon Women Artists Biennale Organizing Committee

Host : Jung, Phil Ju

15:30

Greetings

Kwon, Kyung-Ae (Head of the Organizing Committee)

15:50 - 16:10

Again, Thinking about the Old New Possibility of Womens Art

Lim, Jung Hee

16:10 16:30

The Identity of Biennale and Women Artists Biennale

Cho, Sun Ryung

16:30 16:50

An Alternative Perspective on the Incheon Women Artists Biennales Controversy

Han, Heng-Gil

16:50 17:10

Suggestion for Sustainability of International Incheon Women Artists Biennale

Yang, Eun Hee

17:20 18:00

Discussion

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To Bloom a Flower of History as a Cultural City

Kwon, Kyung-Ae | Head of the Organizing Committee

Professor at Dongduk Womon's University

International Incheon Women Artists' Biennale, realized and developed by Incheon City's cultural policies

and women policies, is expected to achieve further growth by exploring the past and the contemporary time,

women and the environment of the future, and the issue of peace through artworks.

It is said that the 21st Century is the century of women. The women artists of Incheon has created this distinct event

for Incheon, known as the barren land of culture, and many world-class artists and critics have visited Incheon to

share their spirits despite the poor environment and the many challenges. It is valuable that this Women Artists'

Biennale is held in Incheon, spotlighted by the art sector and women artists and enjoyed by the people of Incheon.

Monthly Art introduced Incheon Women Artists' Biennale in a special article (pp. 82-105) with inserts in its

September 2009 issue and other art magazines have also published special articles on it. Public Art, recently

named the best art magazine by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, published a special collection of

"Invention of Art 50" in its July 2010 issue. It was about "50 themes of first art" invented and recorded since

around 2000 B.C. Among them were Jan van Eyck's the first portrait, the Sotheby's the first art auction,

Venice Biennale as the first Biennale, Marcel Duchamp's first moving artwork, and Pablo Picasso's first

collage, and Incheon Women Artists' Biennale was recorded as the world's first women artists' Biennale.

Culture Journal 21(2010) writes : Which country was the first to found an international women artists'

Biennale only for women artists? Is it Mexico, the home of world-famous women artist, Frida Kahlo? Is

it Germany, the home of Kathe Kollwitz, the creator of 'The Weavers' Revolt'? Is it Italy, the home of

Gentileschi? 'NO.' The answer is Korea.

These achievements have greatly contributed to developing Incheon into a cultural city and many world-class artists

will continue to visit Korea to participate Incheon Women Artists' Biennale. Therefore, Incheon will be recognized

as the Mecca of women's art. With the continued support of the Korean government and Incheon City to Incheon

Women Artists' Biennale, Incheon will gain recognition and bloom its flower of history as the city of world's culture.

We are currently in labor at an effort to continue the Biennale that we have promised to hold every other year,

and we hope that this symposium leads to mutual understanding and active participation. I truly thank those

of you who have delivered speeches for the development of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale.

12

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Again, Thinking about the Old New Possibility of Women's Art

Lim, Jung Hee | Adjunct Professor, Department of Humanities and Arts

Yonsei University, Aesthetics/Cultural Theory

Introduction

Currently, Incheon City is facing many controversies concerning the identity of Incheon Women Artists'

Biennale and there are fierce debates on the character of the 2011 Incheon Women Artists' Biennale and

the sustainability of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale. The characteristic of the controversies is that they

involve conflicts regarding the discourse of women's art, conflicts regarding different view of the unique

locality of Incheon, and different judgments about Biennale as a form of cultural exchange.

Needless to say, Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Organizing Committee's autonomous pursuit of identity

determines the development of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale. Incheon Women Artists' Biennale can be

opened up to the world and others only when Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Organizing Committee has

confidence in its identity. Even so, it is difficult for Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Organizing Committee

to stay away from isolation, polarization, and exclusivity due to the fear of loss of identity when it is too

immersed in autonomous identity. It is important to take an open structure beyond exclusivity and pursue

self-generation by experiencing and accepting difference.

Therefore, Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Organizing Committee must make efforts to resolve conflicts

in various dimensions of the local region. Incheon Women Artists' Biennale should be a space of cultural

exchange where foreign values and various aesthetic standards can be experienced, and such foreign

values and various aesthetic standards can be seriously and clearly discussed by the public. Also, it should

be able to participate in broader discourses of the society through emotional experience and intellectual

challenges. The identity of 'women's art' and the local identity of Incheon could pursue constant change

without being stabilized or solidified as a certain image or semantics only when Incheon Women Artists'

Biennale stays open-minded.

In this respect, Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Organizing Committee's upcoming symposium is closely

correlated with the attempts or efforts to reconfigure the subjects of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale (search

of new subjectivity and process of new signification). I believe that the identity of women's art is always

flexible under the influence of various elements without a clear definition, because it is about women and

about art. The semantics of women is never consistent and the semantics of art is never consistent.

18

Women are not isolated individuals and art is not created in an isolated place. They are intertwined with

the complicated social entities and overlap various areas with the intervention of powers that operate in the

society. The identity of women's art can have a tendency, but it cannot be fixed or repeated in a certain

form. It is generated in the ongoing process of mixing with something heterogeneous and unknown. I hope

that this symposium can help us see the new power of generation and passion of Incheon Women Artists'

Biennale.

1. The possibility in the duality of women's art

There is a big difference between understanding women's art as a cultural practice or action and

understanding it as a certain profession (or cultural product). Cultural practice, performed in search of the

meaning of one's existence, is one of the basic needs of human life and classified into political practice,

economic practice, artistic practice, religious practice, and educational practice. The characteristic of

cultural practice is that it is an inevitable act of life. If cultural practice is combined with the general desire of

self-expansion to improve and change one's life, the category of profession undergoes differentiation and

systemization as the desire combines with the social environment. Therefore, practice widely involves the

system and the world, whereas profession revolves around a certain systemized zone.

Profession always includes 'newly interpreted practice' in the systemized zone, of course, but practice takes

a preliminary role as a system of profession is possible only when practice already exists. Women's art as

a profession has been able to settle as a social system through artistic practices that have expanded the

tools of artistic representation to everyday life, or by deconstructing and reconstructing the social interests

concealed by old customs that used to separate human activities into general interests and special interests

hierarchically. While being agitated and moving back and forth in between already artists and not-already

artists, and already-artistic operations and not-already-artistic operations, it has been given the category

of women's art and women artists distinguished from standardized art and artists.

Therefore, women's art exists on the experience and perception of beings excluded and isolated from

both gender and art. Called feminine, these new experience and perception not only resist the narrow-

mindedness and exclusivity of customary art that does not accept others and wishes to be conceived and

to function within the framework of homogeneity, but they also make inseparably close relationships with

all liberal interests of the world (the principle of self-organization with self-decisiveness). In other words,

women's art is a limited place where you critically realize that man-centered art lacks feminine experience

and perception, but it is also a positive place that recognized the possibility of applying feminine artistic

experience and perception to reveal the totality of human existence. Women's art includes both the images

of man-centered art and the images of newer (in fact, older) art.

The meaning and value of women's art vary dramatically by the view of duality of women's art, whether it is

contradictory or mutually supplementary. For example, those who perceive it as something contradictory

believe that women's art, although it resists man-centered art, is still derived from man-centered art and

19

needs to be restricted by the existing order of art as it lacks autonomy and self-decisiveness. On the

other hand, those who perceive as something mutually supplementary believe that feminist art, failing to

settle amongst man-centered art, bears complexity and dynamics as it deals with the interactions and

experiences of various social sectors beyond the existing boundaries of art. In other words, they believe

that the complexity and dynamics of women's art generate imagination and sensibility and diversify human

abilities across all areas of life beyond binary categorization (women's art vs. men's art, mainstream art vs.

non-mainstream art, extraordinary art vs. ordinary life, etc).

The duality of women's art is not as antinomic as the former that relies on certainty. Even when it is

uncertain, it can experience new anthropological changes where aesthetic experience heightens ethical

awareness with the supplementary logic of possible duality. Because of the inherent duality of women's

art, women's art awakens the limitation of art confined in the system of profession and that artistic practice

is the list of universal characteristics of humankind by artistically specializing the non-professional area -

though no one can avoid - of life, which is considered the outer perimeter of art.

Therefore, if you can no longer read the intention to expand the understanding of human to social

dimensions through aesthetic expansion in the name of women's art and if women's art simply pursues

monolithic coding of special aesthetic paradigm, it means women's art has forgotten its history of

existence.

Until today, women's art along the frontline of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale has not encouraged active

communication between already women artists and not-already women artists, already artistic operations

and not-already artistic operations, and places of artistic acts now and places of artistic acts all the time.

The grounds of existence of women's art should be expanded to the next dimension with the understanding

of women's art as a category of cultural practice as well as with the efforts to settle as a profession.

In fact, artistic practice based on gender difference has been partially systemized in various societies along

the course of history since the emergence of humanity. As gender identity is not individual or spontaneous,

but relative to various social relationships and contexts, artistic practice containing the question of gender

identity has inseparable relationship with the social and environmental conditions of its existence. Therefore,

women's art opens new possibilities and conveys liberal interests only when comprehends its existence in a

dualized structure, in terms of women or art, and in individualized or social and environmental perspectives.

Women's art can exist as a part of numerous semantic systems of the history of man as long as it questions

its existence through artistic languages that are official to both men and women or unofficial and holds the

strength to define itself within social relations as an individual entity and social and environmental conditions.

Liberal interests of womens art cannot be fully addressed by the theory, concept, or discourse of women's

art. In particular, women's art in the Korean society has emphasized the theoretical aspect and has been

intellectually and emotionally stimulated by introducing women artists from Europe and the U.S. However,

not much has been newly discovered about the Korean women and their culture. The cultural reality of the

Korean society has been missed out from the discussion of women's art, meaning that women's art has

20

lacked its character as a political practice. Isn't it because women's art in the Korean society has been

pushed by the accelerating trend of cultural globalization since the 1990s without taking active roles in the

change of time? Doesn't it mean that it has lacked in-depth approach to the reality of women and art in

the Korean society, trying to join the globalized mainstream paradigm of women's art? It is necessary to

examine whether lack of reality is the blind point of women's art in the Korean society.

Women's art in the West, contemporary women's art, and women's art of feminist artists (as professionals)

are just different types of women's art and none of them can be the perfect representation of the entire

women's art. Likewise, art and non-art, women and non-women, here and not here, and now and not

now are not contradictory or separate, but circulatory, connected, and interdependent relationship. A life

here can be an artistic area there, and the women cooks of the old times and that place can be the women

artists of now and this place. If women's art supports the transition of boundaries by seeing differently,

thickly, and slowly rather than insisting on unitary compromise and conformism, women's art, depending on

women's art as a profession and women artists as professionals, is taking a degenerative turn while denying

the realization of numerous possibilities and confining itself to simplified subjects.

2. Multicentric System of Festival and the Formality of Women Artists' Biennale

Festival is the combination of feast (festa dies), the celebration of pleasure and congratulation, and fast

(memoria dies), the commemoration of sadness and atonement, and refers to the act of acknowledging the

duality of life - pleasure and sadness - and taking advantage of celebration and commemoration for self-

realization. The root of 'festival' is festivalis, the Latin term for a holy day, meaning that it is closely related

to religious rituals. In the traditional society, including the ancient society, many festivals originated from

holy religious rituals. Some of the examples would be Jecheon Ritual, an ancient festival of Korea, the New

Year's ritual of the Mayan tribe, and the Peruvian Sun Festival. The Sun Festival, originated from the Incan

Age to serve the sun god, involved nine days of passionate feast after a rigorous ritual, manifesting that

festival is a multicentric system consisting of ritual (cosmos, objective) elements and non-ritual (chaos, non-

objective) elements.

The dualized structure of festival contains both the image of order that takes everything inside nature as its

objective and mutual tool and the image of disorder that reveals limits through resistance and rejection to

stimulate the image of order. It recognizes order (the world of truthful and profound reality) and discovers

beauty within it, but it also rejects, questions, and reproduces it to pursue the power of practice that can

destroy order and create new order in the chaos (the compulsion to participate in empirical reality).

Because of duality or double-sidedness of festival - official and unofficial acts, holiness and vulgarity,

silence and loudness, peace and passion, artificial culture and unartificial nature (human culture and human

disposition), and worldly vision and basic wills of life - it can serve as lens through which you can understand

the existence and life of humankind from a more open and vibrant point of view.

21

The actual mechanism of this lens of festival is powered by the aesthetic and ethical characteristics of festival

based on the symbiosis of men and nature. The balance-imbalance of men and nature forms inseparable

epistemological and ontological pairs. Because of the duality that can either match or mismatch, human

abilities expand and shrink and the relationship of truth and false, and virtuality and reality can change.

Therefore, the double-sidedness of festival should be evaluated dynamically based on the logic of mutual

supplementation. When viewed through this lens, men can be seen as a part of the network that is mutually

linked and dependent on all natural phenomena and the relationship of nature-men-society can encourage

creative connectivity and horizontal links.

The double-sidedness of festival takes your emotion and reason out of a narrow dimension to an expansive

change. Aesthetical experience promotes ethical maturation. Historically, there are many cultural

achievements that display unity of nature and men, but these achievements are confined in secret and

formal languages and cannot actively make communication in the modern Korean society. In Korea, many

local communities host festivals as places to distribute political slogans or events of economic show-off

and the complex and dynamic process of festival is replaced with easily managed and comprehended

simple forms. Therefore, it is difficult to experience the effect of spontaneous, coincidental, and unexpected

participation. The duality of festivals is restricted or controlled so that new desires and generations cannot

play actively and liberally. It seems that there is an abyss in between professional curators of festivals

and participants, already configured contents of festivals and not-already occurred happenings, and

undesignated places where festivals can take place and designated places open for festivals. However,

festivals, as temporary places where you can explore the possibility of self-expansion in the reality of dreams

and fantasies and the reality of action and pain, are not the elements of utopia far into the future, but the

symbols of historical movements always renewed by reinterpretation, rediscovery, or reconceptualization.

Since 'women's art' bears actual possibility when the historically dualized characters of women's art

are comprehended in a mutually supplementary relationship, wouldn't it be possible to experience the

connection and interaction of various heterogeneous cultural practices and acts if 'Women Artists' Biennale'

adopts a multicentric system of festival?

All this time, the government and the market, despite the difference in basic philosophy and roles, have

taken similar stances in that they have tries to dominate and utilize culture and art to achieve their purposes.

It is wrong, but they believe that culture and art are not as important to life as politics or economy. However,

political authority or material abundance acquired without aesthetical and ethical consideration of one's life

is empty and vulgar. It is the duty of not only the people of Incheon, women, and artists, but also everyone

who tries to pursue self-realization, contemplate themselves, and liberate themselves from all prejudices to

question whether Incheon Women Artists' Biennale has submitted to a political purpose to boast powers

by sacrificing Incheon, women, or art or surrendered to the logic of market to guarantee certain people's

wealth.

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26

The Identity of Biennale and Women Artists' Biennale

Cho, Sun Ryung | Independent Curator

All Biennales are settled through series of debates surrounding their identity and reason of existence. As

far as I know, the debates surrounding Incheon Women Artists' Biennale are nothing special, but a natural

process.

Busan Biennale, which has almost found its place, underwent many debates on its necessity and identity.

While working for Busan Museum of Art for nine years, I, as a member of the Busan art community, have

participated in some of those debates or symposiums. There, some participants argued the uselessness

of Busan Biennale. One of the opinions was that Busan's signature cultural event is not the Biennale, but

Busan International Film Festival in terms of popularity and budget and Gwangju is enough for Biennales

in Korea. However, Busan was not always the city of film, but it has gained that image just because the

International Film Festival has been a success. Also, we need to remember that the same debates existed

when Busan International Film Festival was first founded. Many opposed to it, saying that it is reckless and

unnecessary to create an international film festival in Busan considering its various conditions. Now, fifteen

years later, Busan International Film Festival goes shoulder-to-shoulder with many world-class film festivals.

I believe that this symposium for the future of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale should be approached from

a similar context. In other words, the premise is that it takes effort and time for a cultural event to establish

its identity and become a signature event and it is desirable to look at the controversies concerning the

identity of the Biennale from a broader perspective. What is important is to admit that the issue of what

a Biennale can contain cannot be resolved by a material approach based on general categorization or

classification and that it requires some exploration.

I am not in a position where I can present a clear direction for Incheon Women Artists' Biennale. However,

I want to suggest that it would be helpful to examine the cases of other Biennales that deal with similar

categories. For example, we could compare it to Media City Seoul.

International Incheon Women Artists' Biennale, as its name tells us, is clearly a biennale for women artists.

However, there have been several agenda concerning the meaning of categorizing women artists separate

27

from the rest of artists. Also, the link between women artists' work and the identity of women is not always

consistent. Women artists usually have feminist tendencies, but not all women artists do. Because of this,

it is questionable whether Women Artists' Biennale is a Biennale for women artists or a Biennale for women-

related issues.

The controversies around Media City Seoul of Seoul Museum of Art are similar to this in certain aspects.

What is Media City Seoul? Is it a Biennale on the genre of media art? Is it a Biennale on the issues of media

art? These two areas do not have a common ground. If you look at media art as a genre, you might say

that every form of art besides painting and sculpture is media art, but this type of definition cannot evade

the criticism that it is too simple-minded and outdated. Photography, video, ad digital media are no longer

special or new. Countless artists are freely experimenting with a variety of media. Also, not all artists

using video media or computers are talking about the media culture. In this respect, some argue that it is

meaningless to categorize media art. Some even criticize that media art is being used by the government

policy to relate Korea with the image of the nation of advanced scientific technology. (This tendency is most

frequently seen in Asia and Korea saw many media art festivals come and go across the nation in the mid

90s in relation to its image as the nation of advanced technology.)

However, I do not think that the category of media art is meaningless or unnecessary. It is both meaningful

and necessary for art to intervene in or respond to various issues presented by the modern media culture.

This area is relatively new and newly challenged by art. The questions of how much faster the modern

media culture is changing than other areas, how its changes influence our lives, perception, and existence,

and how we should comprehend and respond to these changes cannot and would not be examined by

technology-centered perspective. This is where the role of art is emphasized.

Among the media art events held in Korea, the most stable one is Media City Seoul of Seoul Museum of Art,

celebrating its 6th anniversary this year. However, this Biennale's identity is still controversial. Its character

has changed year after year according to the interpretation of each curator. For example, the first event

held in 2000 (titled Media City Seoul) exhibited many works by video artists of the 1960s and 70s, including

Bruce Nauman and Vito Acconci, and felt like an Art History book. After that, this Biennale has been back

and forth art's intervention in media art and media culture. There were even more various opinions on this

year's 6th event. Some said that it has failed to characterize itself as a media art event, whereas others said

that this year's event has taken a step forward to discuss the influence of media environment on humans

when all previous events simply focused on showing off the new technology.

I think that the theme, Trust, was a good theme that surpasses the narrower interpretation of media art.

Our trust in media culture is a common issue, but it can trigger a meaningful discussion on the characters

of contemporary culture. However, I could not say that the exhibition addressed this theme properly. It

borrowed the term, media art, but it was missing the point in many parts and lacked consistency as a

28

Biennale. Therefore, I would say that it was a failure. Nevertheless, it has some positive points in that

it at least showed its intention to interpret the identity of media art beyond material or media. Such

reestablishment of direction is expected to make a certain level of constructive contribution to the discussion

of Media Art Seoul's identity.

I suggest approaching the discussion of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale from this perspective. In other

words, we should admit that it takes various attempts and experiments to establish the identity of a Biennale

and that these attempts and experiments must break away from intolerant mentality bound to preexisting

categories. For instance, even if this Biennale deals with women-related issues, it should consider and

accept the broad spectrum. In fact, I actually believe that women-related issues cannot be discussed by

themselves, but should be discussed in relation to various other issues.

If so, should Incheon Women Artists' Biennale be a Biennale of women-related issues or a Biennale of

women artists? It is hard to say. Each character has strengths and weaknesses. The former can establish

a distinct character and induce active participation of interested curators or artists, but it could appear rather

narrow for a Biennale that has to be held over and over. The latter is broad enough, but it can confront the

question of the meaning of categorizing women artists separately.

Either way, there will be ceaseless debates surrounding these two stances as long as the Biennale exists. (No

Biennale, especially those with special characters, such as Media Art Seoul or Asian Art Biennale, cannot

hide from these debates.) I am not supporting one side. What I want to say is that either of them will be

meaningful only if this Biennale stays dynamic in addressing various issues and away from its comfort zone

and cliches.

The category of 'women artist' would not be very positive if it is explored in terms of welfare or quarter

system or in terms of separatist feminism. As Jacques Ranci-re said, however, if a group (of women) not

considered the advocate of universal values speaks a universal language to contribute to creating a space

for the politics as a space of discordance, this already makes a significant women artists' Biennale. In

this respect, it is not necessary for women artists' Biennale to emphasize the essence or uniqueness of

women's art. Such emphasis would just narrow down the character of this Biennale. Rather, wouldn't it

make women artists' Biennale more significant to make the audiences to forget that it is just about women

artists? The Biennale would succeed when women artists can advocate 'artists' and 'the humankind', not

just the benefits and characteristics of women.

Another possibility would be to address women-related issues through this Biennale. In this case, a more

successful approach would be to address women's issues from a broader perspective, not limited to

women's benefits, and to allow participation of any interested artist.

In fact, women's issues today are generated in the intersections of numerous contradictions and issues,

29

not in an isolated area. An attempt to isolate it to a single area could mean that it has fallen in the trap of

narrow-mindedness and limitation. I would like to quote some paragraphs from Yesterday and Today of

Korean Feminist Art - With Emphasis on Links to the Feminist Art of the 80s that I had written for Cultural

Science (2007):

In the early 21st Century of Korea, defined by the sexual trade event of the Ministry of Women's Affairs and

'soybean paste girls', it seems that feminism is an outdated word. Where people openly argue that this is

the era of femininity, feminism sometimes feels like an old-fashioned decorative plate in the armoire. From a

liberalist point of view, of course, the status of women in Korea has improved a lot. In areas where women's

desire or trait is playing an active role, men could even feel a sense of inferiority.

On the other hand, the status of Vietnamese women who appear in the flyer for rural men's matchmaking

reading No prepayment and no run manifests that feminism still surrounds us today in a different social

context (or in an unresolved and concealed social context). In the Korean society where there is a strong

misogynic view across the society (considering that a lot of highly educated men do not accept feminism as

a politically righteous and obvious concept, but still think of it as wild women's turf war), feminism could be

'something that has not come' that has passed us as a trend.

... If the category of 'women' is not the cause of female identity, but a result, as said by an eminent feminist

theorist, Judith Butler, that is, if identity is a performative thing, the category of feminism itself could be the

product of an essentialistic error. In this respect, change can be positive in and of itself. However, lack of

feminism (or lack of discourse)' could be because of Korean art's incompetence in handling social issues as

a whole. Judith Butler said that the concept of performative identity does not block the need or possibility

of solidarity. In other words, even if there is no universal or fixed category of women, it would not be

impossible for numerous different women to establish solidarity temporarily.

30

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34

An Alternative Perspective on the Incheon Women Artists Biennials Controversy

Han, Heng-Gil | Curator for Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning

To begin this presentation, I would like to report on a couple of my conversations with a few art professionals

in New York about Incheon Women Artists Biennial (IWAB). As it originated from private conversations,

this report does not represent the New York art worlds view of Incheon Women Artists Biennial, but it

demonstrates that the event has put the City of Incheon on the map of the international art world to some

degree - a visibility hard to buy with just money. Most people in New York have never heard of Incheon.

This invisibility began to change with a biennial that is distinctively conspicuous with its explicit focus on the

work of women artists. All of the American women art professionals and artists with whom I communicated

up to this point had nothing negative to say about the biennial or its explicit name. Male artists and curators

I have talked with have also viewed the biennial positively and found it interesting.

One comment that stuck my mind was by Sara Reisman, the young director of the New York City Percent

for Art program. When I brought up Incheon Women Artists Biennial in relation to a Korean woman

artist, she said: She [the Korean woman artist] would not want to participate in such a gender specific

project. [Because] What I have heard is that internally, within Korean circles, it's not taken as seriously as a

gender non-specific biennial. Her comment left me the impression that Americans would find the biennial

important and feel supportive of it. In the States, Asia is still perceived as a male-dominated society (as it

is), a perception based on photographic images circulated in the mass media, statistics of women artists

participation in major events like a biennial, and the traditional family structure in which sons are favored

over daughters. Placed in the context of this view, Incheon Women Artists Biennial makes sense, and it is

believed that most Korean women artists would support it. Nevertheless, some Korean women artists dont

want to be involved in the biennial, which raises complex questions that require separate attention to detail.

Another comment came from director of List Visual Art Center at MIT, Jane Farver. She said that

the Incheon Women Artists Biennial is important and therefore should continue. She reasons it is an

established biennial with a good history. A women artists biennial, an international platform focusing on

contemporary arts by women artists carries significance today: Although the rate of women artists inclusion

in biennials has improved, it is still far less satisfactory than the number of opportunities and the attention

35

given to male artists. A women artists biennial has the value of encouraging the creation of new work by

women artists, bringing together works by women from around the world to be seen in relation to one

another, and promoting lesser-known talent. A biennial focusing on women artists work is a good thing

and not irrelevant today. Different biennials offer different things; some have become overgrown, but others

are still vital. It depends on the biennial.

I would like to point out that the term a good thing is used to describe Incheon Women Artists Biennial. It

implies that the biennial does not remain within the aesthetic domain but touches upon ethical dimensions

as well. Thus we really have to think through and rethink the idea of eliminating, or disassociating from,

this good event-Arent we supposed to do good things for others? (Isnt there a need for good things

in the world?) For an alternative way of looking at the biennial, I would like to propose seeing the recent

controversy around the biennial from the perspective of a clash between the global and local points of

view. The biennial that is regarded as significant today from the global perspective has wound up with the

arguments for its abolition from the local perspective. This proposed view captures the controversy as a

productive energy with cultural sensibility and maturity. The view also highlights the extreme urgency and

seriousness of the controversy in todays cultural landscape.

It is unfortunate that the local media reporting on the controversy have missed a chance to get a real handle

on it and learn what a biennial is and does: its international aspect with profound impacts on a broad

scale of the hosting city and beyond. I have failed to find one local article that took the matter seriously

and investigated the necessary significances of the biennial for Incheon citizens and the nation, as well as

the world. The local media was so deeply and narrowly focused on past grudges between the opponents

the controversys sensationalism-although the right issues for them to cover for the city would have been

obviously not so much about whats happened in the past, but what is to be gained in the future for citizens

in Incheon and beyond. No article identified the specific interests of Incheon artists in the biennial in a

constructive or concrete manner. The blaming by area artists was generically repeated with no specific

references; the articles were neither refreshing nor informative, only serving to spread a foul mood. No one

thought to listen to the insights of biennial experts or the opinions from people other than those in the local

art circle-Incheon politicians, economists, educators, and general citizens.

To be sure: A well-organized international biennial is not merely an exhibition, but a cultural event that

epitomizes the functioning possibilities in infrastructure and communication among the social, economical,

political and educational entities of a city. A biennial is more than just an art world thing; it is an economic

project of cultural industry and a political statement declaring the advanced democracy of the hosting

city. The priority of a biennial is not the partisan interest of some community artists, but the whole city

s economic, political, and cultural benefits to all citizens. The improvement of an areas social and cultural

conditions is the factor that determines whether or not the city hosts and sponsors a biennial.

36

The dawn of the twenty-first century will have been the period for biennials in the history of art and culture. So

many biennials have been established around the world in the past twenty years; and this tendency has not yet

begun to decline, contradicting the prophecy of many arts experts only a few years ago. The trend has actually

accelerated with the current recession as art festivals and biennials seem to offer the only way out of the declining

economy. Miami just established a new biennial in addition to the already existing ones in the US.1 Other cities

have begun biennials or triennials in Europe, South America, and elsewhere.2 South Korea is a developed country

in the biennial industry (I actually think the most advanced) with its nine periodic international exhibitions.

The sheer number of biennials begs us to change our way of thinking. Among the flourishing number of

biennials, the old modernist aesthetics (for pure art or art for arts sake) are being reconsidered in favor of a

more enlightened and inclusive vision. Contemporary art is called to pay its dues to society: Art is seen as a

cultural policy to achieve political agendas as well as a form of entrepreneurial innovation to satisfy economic

necessity. I do not mean that a biennial is a machinery of political propaganda or a means of a financial

investment, but I mean art that is considered relevant today is that which sees itself in relation to other areas

of life and society whereas in the past it was believed that art had to been seen in isolation in order to be fully

appreciated. (Whether or not such an undertaking is even possible is another question.)

In order to avoid an irrevocable misjudgment, we must see what is at stake when so many cities are

clamoring for their own biennials. Such an undertaking helps revitalize a citys economy and raises the

awareness of contemporary art among its general citizenry, in addition to the political function of consensus-

building among its citizens and the positive effects of promoting the city as a cultural hub. We also have to

examine whether we, as citizens of Incheon city, would want to give up taking part in an important current

that helped usher in the twenty-first century and demonstrated a shared destination of the world culture

among many cities. Do we really want to get off a boat weve learned to build ourselves that everyone

wants to get on? We all know that isolationism is not a possibility in this brave new world of networking. We

all also know that we can only become a leader of a genuine movement by not thinking of our community

only, but considering those of others and making contributions to the entire development. No one denies

that Incheon Women Artists Biennial is making distinctive contributions to the global field of art and biennials

by focusing on the issues related to womens life in our contemporary society.

The biennials focus on the broader society than is frequently taught for art causes local artists to believe

that the event is dogmatic and exclusive, but that is not true. Making a biennial fit in the perspective of local

artists is impossible unless you change the event into a local arts event. This precisely is the proposal that

1. The existing biennials in the US include the Whitney Biennial in New York (started in 1932), InSite in San Diego (started in 1992), the

SITE Santa Fe (started in 1995), the Iowa Biennial Exhibition and Archive (TIBEA) (2004), the California Biennial in Newport Beach (2008),

Prospect New Orleans (2008), the Bushwick Biennial in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY (2009), and others.

2. Periodic exhibitions that were recently established are, for example, Bucharest in Romania (2005), Moscow Biennale (2005), the Arts

in Marrakech international biennial in North Africa (2005), Estauire Biennial in France (2007), the Herzliya Biennial of Contemporary Art in

Israel (2007), Biennial of the End of the World in Argentina (2007), Aichi Triennale in Nagoya, Japan (2010).

37

Incheon artists have been suggesting throughout the controversy. I am firmly convinced, however, that

giving up the biennial would result in a loss not only for Incheon city on economic, political and cultural levels,

but also for the Incheon art community and, of course, for women as a whole.

Local controversies around a biennial are not rare in biennial history. Many biennials hold local artists at

arms length, and the local response returns the sentiment in a more or less similar mode: Events gets first

criticized for not being related to the hosting city, then the organizers of the event for being dogmatic, and

then the city for not using the public funds correctly. All of local artists arguments against a biennial that I

know of distill down to an obsessive insistence of destroying the biennial. However, the truth in the local

disputes over a biennial is typically not the fault of the hosting city or its organizers: The primary concern of

area artists is not getting what they want from a biennial, so they must articulate their desires. Once their

requests are formed, it is a matter of negotiation, and it is totally negotiable as long as whats requested

doesnt present an obstacle to the biennial as a whole.

Incheon Women Artists Biennial can become an even more world-renowned event by achieving the

following: Incheon artists should freely organize many exhibitions during the biennial, and the biennial should

actively promote these community exhibitions. The biennial may be the star event, but the area artists are

important catalysts to shape the event into a true citywide celebration. Community artists should be aware

that it ultimately is in their hands to use the biennial to gain what they want from it. Whenever possible,

Incheon city should secure grants for these local exhibitions during the biennial. This is one of the many

ways the biennial can become a part of the city. Successful examples of this kind of management with

local arts scenes are the Venice Biennial and Art Basel Miami. During these extremely successful events,

artists in these cities organize open studios; many arts organizations host independent curatorial projects;

and artists from around the world come to the city to show their work on sidewalks, in plazas or temporarily

vacant spaces. Art is literally seen everywhere in the vicinity of the international events.

The 2011 Tuning exhibition should focus on the recent controversy. The task is not to criticize anyone

involved in the dispute although there are many glaring fallacies in the presented arguments and media

reports. Instead of looking to past errors, it should demonstrate how to exercise constructive debate. There

are productive and unproductive controversies: A productive one involves a process of positive critique,

enlightenment, and production of culture. In contrast, the unproductive one is an act of savagery, a waste

of energy, and the destruction of culture and life. It is in our hands what kind of a controversy we choose to

let this be. A well-used controversy, of which all involved members can be proud, epitomizes the advanced

spirit of democracy and a unifying dialectic that transforms our lifes conditions. A productive controversy

is a work of art, for it takes a fine sensibility, thorough understanding of the world, and the power of future-

oriented vision. An exhibition incorporating constructive controversy will open up dialogue between

biennial opponents and proponents. We may act locally, but we should think globally.

38

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2. Tania Modleski, Feminism without Women, 1991, pp.966-967

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4. Judith Stacey, "Sexism by a Subtler Name: Postindustrial Conditions and Postfeminist Consciousness in Silicon Valley." In Gendered

Domains: Rethinking Public and Private in Women's History, ed. Dorothy Helly and Susan Reverby, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University

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SUNY Press. Mascia-Lees and Sharpe, 2000, p. 5

6. Mary Hawkesworth, p.974

44

Suggestion for Sustainability of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale

Yang, Eun Hee | Independent Curator

Commissioner for the 2009 Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Main Exhibition

As of December 2010, the sustainability of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale is unclear. The Biennale will

take place in 2011, but we are not sure about what would happen after that. For the past few months,

there has been the conflict between those arguing to shut down the Biennale and others who are trying to

save it because it is the outcome of their efforts and love of art.

Twenty years ago, the Korean art world was like a jungle with no path. It was isolated from the world's

art trends and the art system was led by only few art museums and galleries. Today, there are many art

museums (although the suitability and professionalism of their activities are still controversial), Biennales, and

alternative spaces in addition to the preexisting system. Through these institutions, young artists emerge

and challenge the market to be absorbed into the institutions. Various paths have been created in the jungle

of art systems.

What we should focus on is that a number of these new art institutions have been founded and surviving

on public funds. All of these institutions are competitors to one another unless the Ministry of Culture and

Tourism and the limited number of cultural foundations increase their budgets to support them, and as their

number keeps increasing, the portion of budget that is assigned to each of them has to decrease. The

enormous gap between the budgets of the central government and local governments makes the future of

budgets related to culture and arts even darker.

I don't know whether those who insist that government-funded Incheon Women Artists' Biennale be shut

down are making their argument simply to increase their portion of budget, deluded with the idea that

women are no longer the social weak but the social power, or suppressing women, boasting that men

possess superior rationality and judgment like the Machos that women have detested for the past hundreds

of years.

What is clear is that men have never stood unopposing anything women have gathered to pursue. They

consider it as a challenge to their authority. However, women call this oppression and suppression.

45

The purpose of this suggestion is to advocate the justice of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale and to provide

those who are directly or indirectly related to the Biennale with some issues to think about for the future of

the Biennale.

1. To Incheon City

1) We must save Incheon Women Artists' Biennale was born and has grown in Incheon

The government officials of Incheon whom I met while working on the 2009 Incheon Women Artists'

Biennale from August 2008 through the second half of 2009 said that the exhibition is improving and

mentioned after the opening of the exhibition that they should make the Biennale more successful next time.

I don't know where they have gone, but now, those who haven't even seen the exhibition are listening to

someone's biased voices.

Failing to sponsor the exhibition nurtured by the female artists of Incheon through years of experiments and

finally funded by government will interfere with the growth of local cultural activities in Incheon and will be

mentioned as a case where the local government system has failed to sponsor local culture.

Stop listening to the opposers, but try to see why the women are paying to save the Biennale. Governance

is what is needed here. Gather the opinions of pros and cons and contemplate which policy would diversify

the looks of Cultural Incheon in the long run. If the rumor that "It may not be an event sponsored by

Incheon City from 2012," is actually true, it means the government is just killing a native cultural institution. If

Incheon City no longer desires the reputation of soulless government, it is time to show its governance.

2) It is all men who insist removing 'women artists' from Incheon Women Artists' Biennale.

Some often argue that we could just remove 'women artists' from Incheon Women Artists' Biennale. In

addition to that, some argue that it is banal to separate men and women or against the trends to separate

women's art.

This view has already been discussed in North America. Despite that the feminist movement is very actively

promoted across the world and in a large scale in the 2000s, some are talking about the death of feminism,

which is uncanny.1 There are attempts to bury women alive like the queen was buried alive when the king

died in the past.

Also, some criticize feminist scholars as though they study gender, the social role of men and women.

These are male scholars who place men in the center and women gain meaning only in relation with men.2

1. Mary Hawkesworth, The Semiotics of Premature Burial: Feminism in a Postfeminist Age, Signs, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Summer, 2004), p. 962

2. Tania Modleski, Feminism without Women, 1991, pp.966-967

46

If so, what is men's intension behind such arguments? The binary structure of men and women has existed

in all cultures and all historical times where families were led by men based on women's labor. Even today,

countless women are physically/mentally attacked and discriminated in places where they devote their

bodies and spirits, including their home, work, and school. It is still a dominating prejudice that women are

more emotional and immature than men who have led the world with reason. That is why men and even

some women try to avoid any women who speak up their minds as if they are a hazardous material. They

have no willingness to be considerate of loud nagging women or radical women. But did you know that

women have endured such brutality for thousands of years since the world departed from maternalism?

Men who talk about the Biennale without women artists are slashing us again with that brutal blade.

2. To all men who are critical about Incheon Women Artists' Biennale

There was no one who visited or contacted me to talk about the Biennale while it was going on in the

summer of 2009. How cowardly is it to argue that the Biennale is unjust all of a sudden when the mayor

changed in June 2010?

How narrow-minded is it to try to shut down this Biennale that has barely celebrated its second year?

This is why we have to look at the binary structure of men and women not as something of the past, but

something of the present. They are denying that they are downgrading women in this binary structure and

struggling to sound objective by mentioning scores, but they know that they are self-deceptive as they have

been trained to criticize high-class art. They know that art is a human activity that cannot be graded. Is

there an artist who wouldn't be raged when their art turns out to be only 75points?

That is why I am raged. It is clear self-deception for college professors and leaders of cultural organizations,

who are aware of the malady of educational systems and cultural systems that revolve around elites, to

return to elitism and scoring to justify their logic. As men have taken advantage of the solid system that is

favorable to them and to few chosen women, I hope they do not neglect this exhibition created for all other

isolated women.

Do not argue that the issue of men and women is outdated. The issue of men and women is not a trend.

As the art that represents the pain of isolated people and the misery of reality cannot be a trend, it is not a

trend to express women's creativity or to create an open space to encourage it. Trend is a word for those

who consume products, make policies, or lead the entertainment business.

As democracy is not a trend, religion is not a trend, and consideration of the weak/disabled/minority is

not a trend, expanding women's creativity and opportunity is not a trend, but a right. Like an attempt to

recover one's human rights, the right to worship a religion one chooses, and the right to go to school on a

47

wheelchair, it is an obvious right for a group of people to hold an art festival in this culture where it is even

difficult to speak up their voice.

3. To Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Organizing Committee

1) You must see the present of female artists.

For the past 100 years, women have tried to change their perception of women's subjectivity and actively

explored to fight irrationality. According to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), an

affiliate to the United Nations (UN), however, about 70% of 1.3 billion population of poverty in the world were

women as of 2002. Korea, although its national income is USD 20,000, is still not very distant from poverty.

The moment they divorce or lose their husbands, women can easily fall into the trap of poverty, having to

support the remaining family. As of 2010, there are a total of 17,152,000 households in Korea, 22.2%

(3,809,000 households) of which are supported by women. This ratio has increased from 18.5% in 2000

and is expected to increase to 23.1% in 10 years. The education level of female heads of households was

52.7% middle school graduates or below, 31.2% high school

graduates, and 16.2% college graduates or higher. Only 58.4%

of them were employed, which was lower than the ratio of male

heads of households who were employed (85.3%). In terms of

occupation, 30.5% were in labor-intensive services, followed by

service (21.2%), sales (15.2%), specialized professions (13.0%),

and offices (10.9%).

Under these circumstances, the survival of the Ministry of Women and Family Affairs, like UNIFEM of UN,

has to be justified for protection of women's human rights and political, social, and economic rights.

What about female artists? Since an increasing number of female students have been accepted into art

schools, there is more number of potential artists. However, it is uncertain whether they are getting equal

opportunities as men in the commercialized art system. Among the artworks newly purchased by the

Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea in 2007, only 10% out of 264 pieces were created by female artists.

Among the collection purchased by Incheon Cultural Foundation in 2009 for Art Bank, a little more than 20%

of the 58 selected artists were women. Artists are already widely exposed to poverty, and many female

artists do not even benefit from the public system. They have to be dependent on their families to survive or

find an alternative plan to make living. The commercialized art sector is even less favorable. There are not

many collectors willing to invest in female artists who struggle with housekeeping and childcare. That is why

many of the successful female artists are single.

Female artists are again divided into several groups. The following is based on the reaction of artists I met

48

while curating the 2009 Incheon Women Artists' Biennale main exhibition:

1) Some of the female artists who have been privileged with quality education, such as education abroad,

work amongst men as if this reality does not exist or is not related to their work at all. There are two types

in this group: those who are reluctant to participate in Women Artists' Biennale because it makes them a

minority and others who take it refreshing to be introduced by Women Artists' Biennale.

2) Then, there is the group of feminist artists. They are well-educated elites, work based on their perception

of the reality, and have profound knowledge of feminism. Some of them are well-aware of the needs of

Women Artists' Biennale to participate actively, while others have no intention to participate in it because

they do not want to work with anyone who are less enlightened in terms of feminism than they are.

3) There is a group of female artists who vaguely cognize the reality of women, but make only passive

movements due to self-censorship that they must resist women with strong personality and make

ordinary images. They work by themselves, but organize associations for group exhibitions to overcome

their limitations. The women artists' associations that exist in almost every city across Korea provide

warm gathering places for these artists. For them, Incheon Women Artists' Biennale is just an extension

of their normal work.

4) You can also find female artists who refuse to join any form of organization and work alone. However,

they know that it is brutally hard to enter the mainstream of the art sector and constantly agonize between

family and art. They are grateful to be invited by Incheon Women Artists' Biennale.

There are many other different types of female artists besides the above groups.

These complicated stances of female artists mirror the complicated circumstances of the modern society.

Also, each group of women should understand one another. Saying, "You lack understanding women than

me," only worsens the conflict. The Organizing Committee must be dedicated to exhibiting the creations of

various female artists. They must remember that the narrow-mindedness of certain men with authority has

been holding back the art sector and has only hurt many younger artists, and must not go down that path.

2) You need some knowledge of female issues and feminism.

The various stances of female artists must be considered when deciding the concept of exhibition and the

Organizing Committee must acquire both empirical and theoretical knowledge on female issues in order

to understand the intents of curators. The fear of feminism that I felt when I first dealt with the Organizing

Committee has almost disappeared. From now on, it is important to understand that female issues need to

be solved by the accumulated theories of feminism and not to be ashamed to receive help from experts.

It is not very hard to find someone who thinks of feminism as a combatant word. It is true that a majority of

women refuse the term, feminism. Why is it?

49

According to a research conducted in 2003, more than half of 1,000 women who were educated between

the 1980s and the 1990s responded that they do not want to link themselves with feminism.3 Only one

fourth of them accepted feminism to a certain point. What is even more surprising is that middle-class white

women who learned about feminism in college were more negative about it.

This shows that women's material foundation is changing due to the changes in labor and family structure

in the post-industrial society and that the complex issues women experience in the labor market and the

realistic issues of increasing divorce rate and decreasing marriage rate have become more decisive of

women's awareness and lives than feminism or gender equality. Therefore, women have developed unique

personal ideologies to explore their lives.4

As more women who have directly or indirectly benefited from feminism are expressing their voices

and interests, the single term of feminism is no longer enough to explain them. In result, even feminists

themselves are holding contradictory positions, making it difficult to establish a common space for women.5

The aforementioned result that only 25% of women would link their identity to feminism is a significant

information for us and Incheon Women Artists' Biennale. This value also corresponds to the above four

groups of women artists. Incheon Women Artists' Biennale's pursuit of Biennale for Women Artists is not

isolated from the definition of women, as some people say, but it signifies the fast-changing perceptions

of women. This Biennale is a strategically important tool for women to narrow down the gaps of interests

and should is an open space that can accommodate all groups of women rather than a certain group of

women. To create that open space, we are in desperate need of women's spontaneous participation and

broad-minded tolerance - that is, it is necessary to accept women's art besides feminist art.

Therefore, if feminism is a political thinking system for women, we must admit that it must be an ongoing

project, not a fixed or static story of women's reality, and is subject to change according to women's

circumstances.6

3. Pamela Aronson, "Feminists or "Postfeminists"?: Young Women's Attitudes toward Feminism and Gender Relations," Gender and

Society, Vol. 17, No. 6 (Dec., 2003), p. 912

4. Judith Stacey, "Sexism by a Subtler Name: Postindustrial Conditions and Postfeminist Consciousness in Silicon Valley." In Gendered

Domains: Rethinking Public and Private in Women's History, ed. Dorothy Helly and Susan Reverby, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University

Press 1992, p. 323

5. Frances Mascia-Lees and Patricia Sharpe. Taking a Stand in a Postfeminist World: Toward an Engaged Cultural Criticism. Albany, N.Y.:

SUNY Press. Mascia-Lees and Sharpe, 2000, p. 5

6. Mary Hawkesworth, p.974

50

3) We need strategic planning committee.

Incheon Women Artists' Biennale is a meaningful job as an ongoing project. Many foreign critics and

curators have been favorable of it because they focused on the fact that it is an ongoing project for women

artists outside the mainstream.

In the future, more experts should be invited to join the Organizing Committee. Above all, we must gather

experts of female issues, cultural theories, artistic theories, and exhibition curating to establish strategic

planning committee. It has been said that this humble Biennale of women artists has been accepted as

a fresh alternative to the mechanisms shown by the preexisting commercialized art sector of galleries and

collectors and has ripped down the boundary between professional and amateur artists to display a new

context of viewing artistic creations. To convince more opposers, we must encourage the participation and

suggestion of experts and actively endure this shocking situation based on their suggestions.

4. Conclusion

When Gwangju Biennale was founded, there were people who questioned its effectivity in comparison to

its enormous budget. However, it has become a proud event that has put Gwangju on the world's cultural

map. It has taken 15 years of time and about KRW 8 billion each year. I hope that you can show this much

patience with Incheon Women Artists' Biennale, either you support or oppose it. We are not asking for

KRW 8 billion; just KRW 0.8 billion would do.

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